Oh the places you'll go...

Hey everyone, so I am posting this the night before I leave because 1) the internet in my room stopped working on Sunday morning so I am without it in my own room, and 2) Because I would have to get up at the crack of early just to write it tomorrow since I have to get an early start. So here goes.

What can I say, these last six months have flown by. I still can’t believe that it all ends tomorrow. I get on a plane, sit on my butt for 12 hours and I will be back at LAX, where it all began. Just like that. Poof.

The past few days up to this departure have been, well, interesting. Emily and Cristina left about 5 days ago for California, and the rest of the Stuttgart Babes were out two days after that. Dan left yesterday. Seems like I have just gotten used to goodbye, but not for my departure, for everyone elses. It is going to be weird when I am on the receiving end of it all.

Also, due to the fact that I am pretty much alone, (Kate has a TON of work to finish before her own journey to the states this summer) most of my wandering and adventuring has been done by myself. Which if you have been paying attention forces me to use a few pronouns that I have rarely used when talking about my travels - “I, my, me” as opposed to “we, our, us.” Most of my trip, if not al of it, has been spent with at least one other person. Which I absolutely love, becasue then you have someone to look back on the event with and they might be able to remind you of details you forgot or didn’t even notice.

All of this time to myself was kinda nice at first. I could stop to eat when I wanted, I could sit around and just stare at something and not feel as if someone is waiting on me, other fun things that people can do when they are not having to also facctor in the needs or wants of others. But I soon learned that too much time to myself gave me too much time to think. Some thoughts were good, like how cool some part of a castle was, or how am I going to spend the next hour while I am out an about. But other thoughts were not so nice. I started thinking about home, friends, family, companionship of the people who were already gone. Smells, sounds and sights slowly started reminding me more and more of home. Now I can say, after all that time to think, I am mostly ready to end this journey and start my next one back at home. Don’t be mistaken, Wales will always hold a dear and deep place in my heart. I wish I could be considered Welsh by association. But, I can feel that I am more excited to go home now than I was when Emily and Cristina were leaving.

Thank you Mom and Dad for always encouraging me to have this experience abroad, and for helping me so that I could make the most of it. Thank you to all of my friends that I either knew previously or just met in the last 6 months, you all have made my experience amazing and memorable. Thanks to Emily and Cristina especially, for dealing with crazy ol’ me on all of our aventures, nights out (and in), and conversations about whatever came to mind. This has been one of the most amazing chapters in my life, can’t wait to see what the next one brings.

There is one thing that I am extremely excited about going home for (besides all the people I have missed) — exercising. Bring it on gym membership and summer vacation because mamma has packed on quite a few lbs since leaving in January and I would like to see those go away very quickly. :D

With that I will say — this time tomorrow I will be fast approaching California, somewhere over the midwest of the USA. CRAZY!

To all of you who have read/been reading/are reading this blog,

Cheers!

Tah!

Tadah!

See you soon!!! 

Since I procrastinated posting all of these blog entries, I am sorry but they are going to be a little lacking in the detail department. The whole idea though is that those of you who do read this are still able to get a general understanding about what I have been up to over the past couple months of not posting. So here it goes…

Second Stop for Spring Break: Faro, Portugal

A great first stop of the trip, especially after only two days recovery from Paris. A slow moving, relaxing town in the Algarve area with lots of beaches and sunshine. Oh how I missed the sunshine and the gorgeous sunsets!

This part of the trip is where I made the most friends, due to the fact that there is NOTHING to do in Faro except tan, eat, sleep, drink, and dance.

Since the clubs don’t get hopping in Faro until about 1am, we had a lot of time to do some of the other options on that list. Like eating and drinking!

It was AMAZING eating some decent Mexican food out in Portugal, and the free tequila wasn’t too bad either! This part of the trip is also where our group seemed to endlessly multiply. There were four of us: Nina, Pam, Allison, and myself, then we met Josh, five, then Matt and Caitlin arrived, making seven, then KP arrived making eight. Unfortunately, Josh had to leave before we did, but he was still a great addition to the group.

Also, we met Ben and Markus, Australian brothers who lived in Zurich, Switzerland and were traveling in Faro for a few days for a break from work. They loved to drink and go out, so we always had some male escorts to and from the clubs. Made me feel a bit safer!

We literally spent all of our days, except the first, tanning on different beaches - Lagos, Faro, and the deserted island. Can’t complain about that for the start of a 4 week trip through Europe!

Third Stop of Spring Break: Madrid, Spain

Madrid, the city where everything is pretty close by. No use of public transportation necessary here because our hostel was perfectly centered in the middle of the city! The was so much to do in the city as well. Through the whole time I was there with everyone we went to El Museo Del Prado, Plaza Mayor,

Retiro Park, this HUGE cathedral whose name I can’t remember but it had a crypt beneath it,

Palacio Real, and many, many other interesting cathedrals, buildings and parks as well! This town was just filled with such an eclectic mass of things to see, I really do wish I had a day or two more here!

Fourth Stop of Spring Break: Barcelona, Spain

Unlike Madrid, Barcelona conversely was so large that there was no freaking way we couldn’t use public transportation to get everywhere! Our hostel alone was 45-60 mins away from the city centre regardless of whether we took a bus or the metro!

To start, the hostel was up a HUGE hill which we traversed EVERY DAY to and from just to get into town. Now, for those of you that know me, I am not one to complain about a little hill, no big deal. So note that this is not an overreaction. This hill was horribly huge.

Besides this though, the city of Barcelona is by and large ginormous. Which means we were never bored because there was always a new route or place to try while trying to get to the exact same places day in and day out. Also, in Barcelona we (Allison, KP, Pam, Nina, and I) met up with Arlene and her two roommates - Leslie and Lindsay - and Colin and Walt, two guys who Allison and Pam met on a bar crawl in Madrid. So our group in Barcelona was big!

We did two tours and a bar crawl while we were there. The first walking tour was alright, nothing too impressive because we walked in a huge circle that took about 2 hours. The bike tour was AMAZING! We really got to see a lot of the city including the Christopher Columbus statue that points to Libya, not America, the imported beach from Egypt, the bullfighting ring, the Sagrada Familia (to be finally completed in 2023, in theory),

a few other Gaudi structures and just an overall great view of the city.

One other place on this trip that really sticks out in my mind was the trip to the Park Guell.

Again with the hills, there were escalators to help people to it! But the view from the top was amazing!

You could literally see all of Barcelona from where we were. The whole park was just beautiful though. All the mosaic style work with all the rounded edges on everything. Gaudi was a pretty great artist in my opinion.

The other big part about the time we spent there is that we were able to participate in a weekend tradition - a Barcelona Style Swap Meet. Complete with food, drink, and lots of jewelry!

I was sad to say good bye to Barcelona, but I knew that there were other countries and cities calling my name!

Fifth Stop for Spring Break: Munich, Germany

Pam and I traveled alone to Germany, to meet up with two of her friends from Lecister - Sami and Ashley. The four of us did a few tours around Munich. The first being the Sademan’s Walking Tour where we wandered the city learning about Munich before, during, and after the Third Reich. Did you know that 2/3 of the population of Munich did NOT support Hitler during his steady rise to power? I thought that was pretty interesting!

Also, we all partook in a tour of the original concentration camp - Dachau. It was a very overwhelming tour to take, but after learning so much about everything that happened in World War II it was also something I wanted to see for myself.

Intense, but glad I did it is the easiest way I can describe that. Definitely was in the mood for something more lighthearted afterwards.

The other big thing we learned about on the trip was BEER! Germans LOVE their beer, so we had to try and fit in with the Germans and went to a Beer Garden (or two) while we were in Munich! We even tried the HUGE steins of beer while we were there.

Needless to say, we were all pretty giggly afterwards!

After Munich, I had to say goodbye to Pam, Sami, and Ashley. But Emily met me in Munich for the last leg of the trip!

Sixth Stop for Spring Break: Venice, Italy

Yes, finally on to Italy - pasta, pizza, and wine! So excited to be in Venice over Easter! The city on the water!

Not too many places of historical interest, just a city that Emily and I wandered through taking TONS of photos because every canal looked different and special in it’s own way.

There are literally hundreds of ways to get to the same place on a map, and thousands of ways to get lost in Venice! So that is exactly what we did, never went the same way twice and used the guidebooks to help us find places to eat and stuff!

The only tourist attraction that I can think of is San Marcos Square. Home of the Dodges Palace and the San Marco Basilica.

We spent Easter Vigil wandering the canals by night listening to all the churches that rang their bells at midnight. It is quite an amazing experience to just wander the city and everywhere you turn you are just barraged with this sound of bells ringing!

Emily and I had such an amazing time in Venice, neither of us wanted to leave. But alas, more of Italy needed to be seen this break!

Seventh Stop of Spring Break: Rome, Italy

ROMA!!! Such a historical and mass touristed city! To start, Emily and I stayed in an all women’s hostel while we were in Rome. It was really quite cool! There were a lot of mom’s with their daughters traveling for their daughter’s spring break. This city was so much fun to wander around, especially when you find a cheap and delicious place to eat dinner! :D

First major stop in Rome - The Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s “Pieta” in the Basilica

The infamous Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

We were given a tour through the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel by an American based company that was really good. We got those headsets and everything! Totally worth it! After the tour of those two the tour was over and Emily and I went into the Basilica on our own. While we were about to leave a mass started so we watched for a bit.

Also during the first day in Rome we went to the top of Giancolo Hill and saw an amazing view of the city of Rome. We then wandered through town to the main shopping street in town, until we wandered right to the Spanish Steps!

Also, that night we saw the Parthenon and the Trevi Fountain! Made a wish and everything!

Needless to say, we saw so much stuff the first day that the next day we didn’t do too much because we needed to save some stuff to do with Walt and Colin when they joined us!

Once Colin and Walt joined us we made the ultimate goal of going to see the Coliseum!Between that the ancient ruins, among other random places that we stopped, that took up pretty much the whole day!

Eighth and Final Stop for Spring Break: Granada, Spain

After Rome it was off to meet Hannah in Granada, where she has been studying for a year! Granada was gorgeous, except for the fact that it rained practically every day we were there!

The entirety of the trip can be surmised to the fact that their food and drink were SO DELICIOUS!!! Literally anywhere we stopped for food or drink tasted amazing. We tried a Kebap Pizza and we had Banana Wine! Also, we had Churros and Chocolate!

While we were there Hannah took Emily and I to a Flamenco Show! There was three singers, a guitarist and one male flamenco dancer. He was just amazing! The way he moved his feet so fast… incredible.

Also, the biggest tourist attraction in town - The Alhambra! A very large fort/castle that has been added to for centuries by different religions and such that have been in power in Granada!

The other cool place that Hannah took us in Granada is this long graffiti wall that this artist was given the permission to decorate! As you move along the wall there are so many different subjects involved that it is just mind blowing! I could have literally spent hours there just looking and admiring the work that was there.

And then just like that Emily and I were on a plane back to Cardiff…. Spring Break was by far the most amazing experience out in the UK/EU. Living out of a backpack for 4 weeks, hostels, walking everywhere, touring around. If I had enough money I could backpack for a whole year, no problem!

Finishing Up My Stuff About France So I Can Finally Move Along to the Rest of Spring Break!

SO…. I am back from my crazy 5 week spring break and I have been lazy in posting again since the sheer amount of experiences and photos has almost overwhelmed me to even try. But I am trying now, and I hope that you still enjoy the posts even though they will be recounting stuff that happened over a month ago..

Day 3: Disneyland Paris!

One of the more amazing days in Paris, simply because I LOVE Disneyland! To begin the metro ride to Disneyland (yes there is a train that stops at a station that is across from the entrance of Disneyland) was fun because we were serenaded by a saxophonist for half an hour!

Once at Disneyland Arlene and I pretty much just looked at the map, discovered that Toon Town doesn’t exist, and then made a general plan to see everything in the two parks in one day. We started in the Disneyland theme park. On our way to the first stop, we discovered a lot of similarities and differences about the park from first glance. First, the castle is totally different from the one in Anaheim, but that was kinda expected.

Second, Big Thunder Mountain was on the island in the center of the lake that the steamboat goes around. Third, instead of turkey legs, pickles, and churros the stands sold crepes, coffee, sandwiches. So WEIRD!

First Stop: the Haunted Mansion. It was scarier in the way that it looked, a lot scarier, than the one at home. But since the ENITRE narrative was in French, can’t say anything that was said truly scared me. The whole story was different though, from what I can tell it is based around a bride-to-be that was apparently murdered before she was able to be wed. The dancing ball room is a bunch of ghosts at the wedding reception. But the singing heads are still there in the big “outdoor” forest section, and they sing in ENGLISH! That was all that I understood the whole ride.

After the Haunted Mansion we found a section of the park that legitamately looked like Yellostone National Park.

It seemed so random, but at the same time, it was kinda cool! From the Haunted Mansion we headed to the Indiana Jones ride. On the way we saw a drum circle being held by a man with a crazy headdress. Can’t say I didn’t want to stop and drum too! Once at the ride we discovered there is nothing similar about it to the one at home. It is outdoors and is more like a rollercoaster than the indoors track ride in Anaheim. It has a loop for goodness sake! The wait was long, but the ride was so cool just because of how different it was. I kept waiting for the moment where we went inside, but it never came.

Near Indiana Jones was what they called “Robinson Crusoe Island” in lieu of the original Tom Sawyer, not Pirates, Island. It looked so crowded with kids and parents that we decided to avoid it. We then wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was closed that day. Which was a HUGE bummer for us since we LOVE the Pirates ride at Disneyland in Anaheim and we really wanted to compare the two. Instead we crossed through Agrabah to get back to the main street to get to Fantasyland! The castle is going under a TON of reconstruction, so we passed through scaffolding and such to get there.

In Fantasyland we decided to go onto the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ride since that was the only one that we don’t have at Disneyland at home anymore!

Waiting in line was kinda awkward though since most adult-like people in line had one or two kids with them. Unlike us, just two adults standing in line for a kids ride…. no big deal. I forgot how short all of the kids rides were, 35 minues in line for less than 5 minutes on a ride. After Snow White Arlene and I just wandered around Fantasyland seeing what kinds of attractions they had and debating whether or not it was worth it to wait for them. We found the tea cups, and they have an AWESOME glass, decorated roof over them in case of rain (because it does that in France, more so than in Cali).

Another cool attraction was the Alice in Wonderland “Curious Labyrinth,” instead of that ride where you sit in the different colored catepillars, there was simply an out door maze for kids and their parents to walk though! I really wanted to go inside, but the wait was far too long for it to be worth it….

In true “must see” Disneyland fashion, our next ride was It’s a Small World! Unfortunately, I haven’t been on this ride in FOREVER back in California, so I can’t say if it is really all the different. We got on a boat, floated all around the world hearing the same song in different languages. Sounds about the same to me!

From It’s a Small World it was on to the one ride I was totally stoked for - Space Mountain!

Here is the breakdown for this ride, WAY more awesome than the one in Anaheim. First, when you are going up the hill before you drop in to space, the side of the tube opens and you can see a fair amount of the park right before you are shot off. Second, THERE IS A LOOP!!!! Third, there are 360 inversions throughout. Finally, it goes WAY faster than the one at home. I wish I could have ridden this one 4-5 times before the park closed! Alas, we don’t have season passes so we didn’t have time to come back and do so.

From Space Mountain we decided that we should have some food and each bought a hot dog at one of the stands nearby (they also sold crepes). We then stood in line for Buzz Lightyear while finishing out hot dogs. The funniest part of the ride is the part when you are standing in line and there is that HUGE Buzz Lightyear in the center of the room and he is breaking down the plan to defeat Zerg (sp?) and at the end he says, “To infinity and beyond!” At this Disneyland, like most rides, the entire thing was in French. So I now officially have a video of “to infinity and beyond” in French. :D

After the Buzz Lightyear ride (where I totally kicked Arlene’s butt!) it was off to purchase souveniers and then on to the next theme park - Walt Disney Studios! 

Walt Disney Studios in France = California Adventure in California
To enter into Walt Disney Studios you pass through the entrance gates and then this building that is filled with different restaurants. The whole idea of these restaurants is to give the air of someone entering into Hollywood. There are “props” and faux video cameras and other such things that would be found on a movie set strewn about the building. Also, each restaurant’s name is something commonly heard of in movies or tv shows; for instance one such place was called Hollywood and Vine. Plus, you know, the HUGE backdrops that are made to look like Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills….

Once on the other side of the building we noticed a few differences in Walt Disney Studios from California Adventure. First it was a bit smaller than California Adventure. Second, that part of C.A. where you walk towards the “endless street” is about the same in Walt Disney Studios, except that at the “wall” there is an entrance to a backlot tram ride, akin to what one would see at Universal Studios. Also, there were a ton of different rides at Walt Disney Studios. They had a parachute drop themed after the Toy Story Army Men, they had an RC Racer which was a car that went back and forth on a really tall vert ramp, they had an Aladdin Flying Carpet Ride, and they had Crush’s Coaster!

The first ride we went on though was the Tower of Terror! Arlene and I decided to play the penny game while we were on the ride. The penny game is where you hold a penny in the palm of your hand and watch it float in midair as you drop from the top of the ride. My penny didn’t end up back in my hand, but Arlene had hers the whole time. Made the ride a lot more interesting. Our picture from the top is both of us looking at our hands waiting for it to happen!

After that we went on Crush’s Coaster! On this ride the actual thing where the people sit looks like a large turtle shell and there are four seats, two facing forwards and two facing backwards. The idea of the roller coaster is that you are riding on the EAC so the actual ride turns in a 360. At the beginning of the ride Arlene and I were at the back of the shell so the whole first part we ended up going “uphill” facing down then inside the actual ride we were turned forwards for a bit, sideways, backwards, and sideways again until we ended the ride facing forwards! It was so much fun! They need to get one at California Adventure PRONTO!

After Crush’s Coaster we didn’t really have any interest in the other rides there so we went back to Disneyland to try to see the Captain Eo Show that they had behind Space Mountain, but we were too late and missed the last showing. :(

I was super bummed because I couldn’t believe they had the show running there on a daily basis. I heard they brought it back for a tribute to Michael Jackson at the Disneyland in Anaheim but I wasn’t sure if they had kept it installed or not.

By the time we had ran back into Disneyland and tried to get to the show it was late and time for dinner. Where better to go than the Disney Village (like Downtown Disney).

At the Disney Village we decided to skip Planet Hollywood and Buffalo Bills Wild West and have dinner at Rainforest Cafe. I know, kinda lame since we have one in Downtown Disney, but at that point I just wanted something I recognized. So we finally sat down after a long day of walking around two theme parks and enjoyed our amazing dinner. After dinner it was time to say goodbye to Disneyland Paris and head back to Arlene’s place since she had school the next day. It was an amazing experience being able to see a Disneyland Park outside of the US, and I am really glad I was able to go!

Day 4: Falafels, Moulin Rouge, and Escargot

It was a Monday so most of the day was spent sitting at Arlene’s school while she was in class. But for lunch we went to this FANTASTIC Falafel place that Arlene and her classmates go to during their lunch break. It is literally 5 euro for the most stuffed falafel, and then to top it off they put chips (french fries) on top! I needed a fork to eat almost the entire thing there was so much stuff in it.

Then we went back to Arlene’s school and I waited around for her to get out of her last class because I was so excited for the plans we had for that day after class - THE MOULIN ROUGE! Now, I know that the actual Moulin Rouge is a very, very, very expensive place to go see nearly naked women dance on stage, but I am completely obsessed with the movie and HAD to see the place that the movie is based off of for myself. Though we didn’t get to go inside, it was still enough just to stand outside of it and just take the sight of the classic windmill and the red building.

Arlene and I ended up going with Lucille, a girl from her class, and Lindsey, Arlene’s roommate. It just so happens, right behind the person taking this picture (not sure if it was Lucille or Lindsey) there is a ginormous vent, I believe for the metro. Supposedly this vent is the original spot for the Marilyn Monroe white-dress-flying-up photo! Not sure if that is 100% correct, but for me I like to entertain the fact that something attributing two of my biggest crazy/weird obsessions - Moulin Rouge and Marilyn Monroe - are located across the street from each other. Makes me a very happy camper!

After the photo shoot of what we could see of the Moulin Rouge, all four of us went around the corner to an English Pub and sat down for a late afternoon drink! A Guinness for Arlene, Lucille, and myself and a cider for Lindsey. It was just a nice afternoon sitting around and chatting about whatever. Once the sun started to go down we figured it was time to leave an area that was close to the Parisian red light district and head back to our respective places of lodging.

Later that evening when we were ready for dinner Arlene, Leslie (Arlene’s other roommate), and I went to dinner in Mouftard at a place called La Grange. I tried taking a picture of the front of the building and almost got run over by a car backing up into a parking spot so I decided not to take it till after our meal. Dinner was one of the more interesting ones that I have had in France - Appitizer of Escargot and Fondue for the Main. The best part about escargot is that is tastes exactly like whatever it is cooked in, so if you put enough flavor into the cooking of it you kinda forget it is a snail. Besides the fact that you had to get the meat out of an actual snail shell…

The fondue was so delicious! Cheese and different meats and bread…mmmmmmmm. For dessert we all had chocolate fondue with different fruits and stuff, also very delicious! Needless to say after that amazing meal I was stuffed for the rest of the night!

Day 5: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and an attempt at the Louvre

Tuesday = no school for Arlene = LOTS OF SIGHTSEEING!

First stop of the day was the Eiffel Tower! Thankfully it was a beautiful day so the sky was nice and blue and the weather was decently warm! Once we got to the Eiffel Tower we had to wait in line to get tickets where we were suddenly surrounded by voices of many different languages other than French. It was nice to be at a super touristy spot for the first time since I had arrived, it meant more English speakers, or at least less French speakers. The wait wasn’t too terrible and the next thing you know we are in line for the huge lift to take us to the main sightseeing level around the middle of the tower.

After doing a full lap of the main sightseeing deck it was then time to stand in line again to catch another lift to the very top of the tower! This line was a bit slower, but the lift ride was a lot better because there were windows where most of the walls were so you could see outside for the entire ride to the top!

Once at the top of the Eiffel Tower we did almost the same thing that we did at the other sightseeing deck, took a lap around the whole thing to get a full 360 view of Paris!

At the top there is also an office where Mr. Gustave Eiffel used to do his work and have meetings about the building and enhancing of his tower. Also at the top is a Champagne Bar, kinda like a place to celebrate making it to the top safely or something. Or better yet, possibly to celebrate marriage proposals…. or just a way to take the edge off for those who don’t especially like heights. I guess there are a few good reasons to have a champagne bar on the top of the Eiffel Tower. There is an inside section to the viewing deck with the location and distance of every country from every side of the Eiffel Tower. Arlene and I looked through them on our way to the line to get on the elevator back down. The overall experience at the top of the Eiffel Tower reminded me a great deal of being at the top of the Empire State Building in New York!

After the Eiffel Tower we went over to Notre Dame! But not before stopping for a crepe to hold us over until lunch! Notre Dame to me has only ever reminded me of the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have never really thought about what it looked like outside of the cartoonish image that was ingrained in my head every time I watched the movie! So the whole “seeing the Notre Dame in person” was a big deal for me. I would just like to say that my first thought of it was, “When do I get to go into the towers?” Only to be followed by, “Holy crap, it is HUGE!”

Notre Dame is one of the most beautiful cathedrals that I have had the opportunity to step into and see for myself while I am off on this side of the world. I honestly feel like no one makes buildings like this anymore and it is a shame because the architecture and the stained glass just made me speechless almost the whole time I was inside.

There were so many tributes to different important people in carrying out God’s word; from Joan of Ark to Pope John Paul II. Also inside are tombs of bishops that have been long dead and gone, along with mosaics of different appearances of Jesus Christ that have been written in the bible. Walking though Notre Dame you can see how the history of the building and the religion celebrated within it have changed and grown over the many, many years of the cathedral’s existence.

After the awe-inspiring tour of the inside Arlene and I wandered around the outside of the Notre Dame. We wanted to get a big picture of how this massive cathedral looked inside and out! We found a little park behind it where we sat and relaxed while we waited for Leslie to meet up with us.

Once Leslie was with us, we finished our tour around the outside of the Notre Dame and found some rollerbladers weaving in and out of mini-cones and doing 360 jumps over a battered looking rope. After watching them we moved on and found a place to have lunch together. After lunch Leslie went to class and Arlene and I went to the Louvre. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until we got to the Louvre that we remembered it was closed on Tuesdays. Lo and behold it was a Tuesday… so that was a fail. But we did get to see where the pyramids meet underground from the movie The Da Vinci Code!

After the Louvre, Round 1, my feet were aching so we headed back to Arlene’s place where we chillaxed for the rest of the night.

Day 6: Visitors Arrive, Arc De Triumphe, Champs-Elysees, and A Night to (try to) Remember

That morning Caitlin and her friend Jessica arrived in Paris to visit Arlene and see the city! Since Arlene had class Leslie and I decided to take charge of touring them around.

The first stop was a gelato shop that Leslie heard about from a friend or something that we just HAD to try. It was a cute little shop with over 30 kinds of gelato and sherbert. It took me forever to make a decision! I think I ended up with lemon and strawberry? I honeslty can’t remember anymore, what I can remember is that it tasted amazing! All of it! Between Jess, Caitlin, Leslie and myself we had a lot of flavors to try. Gelato in hand we wandered around the area for a bit till Leslie realized where she wanted to take us next.

The next stop was a trip by the Hotel De Ville, a fancy schmancy hotel indeed with lots of statues and towers and stuff.

While we were taking photos of this lovely place, Jess was smacked (literally smacked) in the face by a homeless woman who was sitting on the ground near the hotel. She was yelling angrily in French, but speaking too fast for Leslie to get what she was saying. My theory was that she thought Jess was taking a picture of her.

After that Leslie had to say au revoir and head off to class herself, we walked her most of the way back and then headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the second time for me! Because I was actually getting the hang of the area I took them to the cathedral, I was quite proud of my tour guiding skills after only 6 days of being there! Also, it was nice to be able to really take in Notre Dame and not be running around with a camera in my hand trying to document every last inch of the place so I could remember it later. Around the outside and behind the cathedral Jessica, Caitlin, and I played at the park for a bit.

While we were at the park some of Paris’s finest army men decided to make sure the park was safe with their AK47’s in hand.

After the park we made our way back to Arlene’s school so we could pick her up and continue our tour of Paris. Next stop a modern art museum near Arlene’s campus. It looked totally crazy from the inside, but so was the price. So we decided not to go there. Instead we took a metro to the Champs_-Elysees and walk along the entire street of high fashion and uppity restaurants. At the end of that street was the Arc De Triumphe! First we took some pics of us in front of it from across the street. Then we spent the next 15 minutes figuring out how to get across the HUGE 6 lane traffic circle so we could be right next to it. While we were wandering around the perimeter looking for a set of stairs to go under, I suggested we run across. No one thought I would be able to make it. To this day I am still convinced I could have made it there. We did end up finding the staircase, after we had walked almost 180 degrees around the circle.

Once at the Arc, we proceeded to attempt to read all of the plaques (hard to do since they were in French) about what/who the Arc was dedicated to. All in all, the Arc was a great monument to go see, I thought it was really neat.

By the time we were done seeing the Arc de Triumphe we were all pretty much exhausted; especially Caitlin and Jess who were running on about 4-5 hours of sleep in the past few days. So we went back to Arlene’s, after grabbing a bite to eat at a cafe along the way, and we all passed out for a nap. Best idea ever since we were going out that night. We all woke up and got ready to go out and began pre-drinking a bit later than we should have. Totally worth it in the end though.

We began our night with a cheers akin to that in the movie “The Hangover.” I wish of a good night that no one will forget followed with a clink of drinks.

Note the eye contact though! In France, and most of Europe, it is considered bad luck to not keep eye contact until the clinking of the glasses has been completed. Apparently, if you do not have eye contact you will have seven years of bad sex. Something most people are not willing to risk in their lives. ;)

After pre-drinking we had to rush to the Metro before the last train left the station so we could get to this club on Champs-Elysees. Needless to say, we missed the last train halfway there. It took us a while to figure out we missed it because we were having too much fun on the platform to notice the time. We were forced to leave the station and find two separate taxis. We were over going to the special club so we just went to CapRouge instead until it closed.

The process of getting there was an experience in itself - having to wait for both cabs to get there, handling our bathroom needs, falling into doorways, and others I am sure. Finally at CapRouge, it was nice to just sit and relax for about an hour or so… until it closed. Quite an interesting night for the six of us, and we were ready for bed when we got back to the apartment.

_
Day 7: The Louvre and the First Attempt to Get Back to Cardiff_ 

A late start this day due to the fact that we went out the night previous. Since I was leaving we only planned on lunch and the Louvre before I had to take the tram into the airport.

Lunch was delicious, this cafe right around the corner from Arlene’s place. All of us made sure to get something heavy to help with the recovering process. The only downside was that lunch literally took us two hours! I am positive it took like 40 minutes to get the check.

Once we were finally on our way to the Louvre I was feeling a bit less stressed, but I was getting bummed at the lack of time I would have inside. When we arrived we made sure to do the big tour and photo shoot from the outside with the glass pyramid.

Then we traversed into the secret entrance to the ticket machines away from all of the lines and made a bee line for the most important pieces. The first on the list was Winged Victory. Next was the Mona Lisa, my personal goal for this trip was to see this one! I still get super excited when I think that I got to actually to see THE Mona Lisa, the original, one of the most talked about and recreated pieces in history. Just unbelievable!! We also saw the Venus di Milo! That was also amazing to see in person. But my favorite statue that I saw at the Louvre was Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.

We spent a good couple of hours in the Louvre and then we had to put the pedal to the metal so that we could go back to Arlene’s apartment and grab my stuff so that we could head to the main metro station and I could grab the metro to the airport. It felt like it took forever to get back and just get on the train. It didn’t help that I had grown very comfortable being in Paris for a whole week. The goodbye was so hard and I then had an hour and a half train to just think and try to keep from crying. Worst metro ride ever!

When I finally got the airport I realized that I had ten minutes to run to the total opposite end of the airport before my gate closed. That mean going up two escalators and booking it what felt like half a mile in a crowded airport. As I ran up to the gate I looked for the “Bristol” heading and couldn’t see it. So I asked an EasyJet employee and they explained that if I didn’t see the heading my gate had closed and I had missed my flight. At that point all of the emotional hell that was already in my system was amplified by about 100 and I had to force myself  to get composed enough to rebook my flight. Another 50 euros later I had a fight for the same time the next day and I had no other choice but to head back to Arlene’s place.

Two major problems with this plan. One, I had no credit on my phone to let anyone know that I was stuck in Paris. Two, I didn’t have enough change to buy a ticket back to the city. The first idea of mine was to try to top-up my phone online, since Vodaphone doesn’t exist in France at all. The only problem with that is that Vodaphone doesn’t accept US Debit cards because they can’t figure out the address. So getting credit on my phone was a no go. The next idea I had was to make change from one of my euro notes at the “exchange” desk. Turns out that they don’t make change for free, you have to buy a 10 euro phone card and get coin change after that purchase. I was in no mood to try to argue with it and purchased the card just to get the change so I could buy the stupid RER ticket back.

Only after I purchased the RER ticket did I realize I now had a way to to get a hold of people and tried calling Arlene to let her know what happened. She was in a class so I just left her a voicemail and jumped on the next RER to Paris. Once back in Paris I took the train to the school of hers I had visited and found all the doors locked and most of the lights off. I decided to wait at the front steps to her school until her class got out at nine. Well that was my decision until it started getting dark outside and I began to think that maybe I would be safer waiting for her or her roommates at her apartment.I found another payphone and updated Arlene on my plan.

I quickly jumped back on the metro and went to her place and waited in the foyer of her building for someone to come home and let me in. I think it was about fifteen minutes before Lindsey came home and let me in the the apartment where I waited for everyone to get home, emotionally exhausted and embarassed that I had missed my flight. Also, Arlene’s class was at a different campus than the one that I had been to so that was a fail as well. I fell asleep very easily that night because of how drained I was.

Day 8: FINALLY made it back to Cardiff. The End. 

First, I would like to start with and apologize for not getting the info about Paris up before I have to leave again for more adventures. I promise the info will be posted as soon as I get back… in May. It was a great start to my Spring Break and I will of course try to recount as many of the details as I can when I get back to it.

Second, I am now beginning the second part of my break, my four week insane Europe Tour. Since I will not be doing much touring after this break, I decided that I should go all out over my spring break. So I am going to lay it out for you.

Stop 1: Faro, Portugal with Nina, Pam, and Allison Bellows and later joined by KP, Caitlin King and Matt

Stop 2: Madrid, Spain with the entire group mentioned above. We are going to do a free walking tour and a pub crawl at the very least

Stop 3: Barcelona, Spain with Nina, Pam, KP, and Allison

Stop 4: Munich, Germany with Pam and some of her flatmates from Lecister, at the very end I meet up with Emily and she joins me for the last part of my trip

Stop 5: Venice, Italy, while we (Emily and I) are here it is going to be Easter Sunday, I am so excited!

Stop 6: Rome, Italy with Emily where we plan on doing an amazing photo shoot and most definitely touring the Vatican!

Stop 7: My final stop, Granada, Spain with Emily where I get to stay with Hannah one of my very very very good friends from Club Soccer! I am hoping for an insiders trip here!

And that is it everybody! Wish me luck, you know I will be taking lots of pictures and I will try to update as I can!

Cheers!

Jessica

I am back, after Arlene, Lucille, and I grabbed a quick bite for lunch. Arlene is in French class now, so that means more time to blog! YAY! :D Again, sorry about the lack of pictures, I will fix that when I can.

Day 2 in Paris: Saturday, 26 March, 2011

Today I was able to join Arlene on one of her many “excursions” that she has available to her through her CEA program in France. Today’s excursion was a trip to Chateau de Rambouillet (pronounced Rom-boo-lay).

After last night, I wasn’t really ready to get up at 8am to be at the meeting point by 10, but I go up and managed to get there with Arlene on time. From her place we took a different metro than the one that we took from the airport on Thursday, it was above ground. Also, it was SUPER crowded, like shoved in like sardines crowded all the way until our stop, the station we were meeting everyone. At the station Arlene and I bought breakfast and lunch at a little bakery place in the train station since we were apparently having a picnic or something at the Chateau.

The group finally arrived and we were off to catch the direct train to Rambouillet. It was a pretty packed train and difficult to find seats. Arlene and I found two and another girl from her program ended up sitting near us. Her name is Julia, she is from North Carolina, and so I was asking her questions up the wazoo. For those of you who don’t know this about me, North Carolina is the one state in the United States that I have always wanted to visit and go to school in. Ever since I was in Jr. High School and learned that UNC Chapel has the BEST women’s soccer program in the nation I have been looking at North Carolina for college, I was aiming to be a professional soccer player for my career, Mia Hamm was my idol, all that jazz. Then, my mom went to UNC Chapel Hill and showed me pictures of the campus and I was even more hooked. Farther along in my schooling I received a Duke admissions packet and knew that I would be happy going to either Duke or UNC Chapel Hill. Also, I absolutely am obsessed with Nicholas Sparks books, like they are my super girly guilty pleasure read all the time. I own all but 2 or 3 of his books. Where are all of his books based? North Carolina, of course.

So talking to Julia was just amazing, she goes to a different UNC university but she told me that she loves it there, and she actually got to meet Nicholas Sparks IN PERSON!! HE SIGNED HER BOOK!! I was so jealous and so intrigued at the same time. She was telling me that all of his books are based on things that have happened in his life, or lives of people around him. The Notebook, based off of his wife’s parents, just amazing. The Wedding I am assuming is about him and his wife. The Rescue is about him, and his son who couldn’t speak and how after he sent his wife on a vacation in Hawaii, spent hours and days getting his son to say “I Love You.” Just hearing her talk about all of this about Nicholas Sparks, I was caught in a daze and didn’t realize that we were already at the stop for Rambouillet.

From the train station there was a bit of a walk to get to the Chateau, along small streets surrounded by such cute, homey, architecture. It was just so cute, and the sun was shining, it was a great day. Finally at the Chateau, we walked into the grounds and straight to the huge lake right next to the castle like building where people probably lived. The whole group just sat on the wall next to the lake for a bit and took in the sun and the scenery. Finally settled, Arlene and I busted out our sandwiches that we had purchased earlier and stayed on the wall and ate. Arlene made a goose friend who wanted a bite of her sandwich, and her teacher make sure to take a picture of it! :D

After we ate, Arlene and I proceeded to walk around the Chateau and take TONS of pictures of the grounds. We found a couple of smaller lakes, TONS of daffodils, birds that can run on water, and mistletoe! Yes, mistletoe! Thank you Girl Scouts and taking us into the woods on California to find it so we could sell it outside of stores around Christmas time. From the general path around the lake there was a whole other part of the grounds that extended so far back, we totally had to explore it. There were tiny streams between large patches of grass and lots of cute little bridges and even a cottage! There were also a few families with their kids having lunch, just enjoying nature. So cute! From the walk around the grounds we took a small pathway through the “woods” near the grounds. It really just ended up being a small nature walk that was about 1/2 mile long. After the stuff we saw on the grouds it was a bit of a let down, so we headed back to the Chateau.

Back at the Chateau we decided to walk around the small town of Rambouillet, we found a sweet shop and I had a Chocolate and a Blueberry Macaron. They looked like little circular sandwiches with some soft filling in the middle. The chocolate one was delicious, I wasn’t too fond of the blueberry one. We wandered the streets of the town, but it seemed like most of the shops were closing so we wandered back to a restaurant that we saw and said hi to some of the other girls who were on the excursion with us, and then sat down and had some water and some strawberries with whipped cream. It was a great break after walking all over the Chateau grounds for most of the morning and early afternoon.

The sun was shining, the strawberries were delicious, and we made an acquaintance who lived in the small town of Rambouillet. She was a tour guide for the Chateau, and she and her husband lived very close to the restaurant we were at. After she helped us order, because none of the workers spoke English, we talked about the European lifestyle and how it was laid back and we preferred it to the go-go-go lifestyle of America. We just spent the next half hour talking about the differences of our country and just about other random things. I thought it was really neat to connect with someone from a different country like we did, and just be able to chat about whatever comes to mind. She left to go home and we left to head back to Paris, but not after telling us we need to come back to the Chateau and get a tour from her so we can really see what it has to offer. Arlene definitely considered it!

The ride back to Paris was short, but I think it was because we were exhausted from walking around everywhere in the Chateau. Once back, we booked it to her place and took a nap! Lindsay and Leslie were at the rugby match that Arlene had tickets to and gave to them, so they weren’t going to be back for a bit. We woke up from our nap super hungry and we decided to go to a place close by that Arlene and her flatmates like to go to - Sushi Gobelins. Yes! I was finally having sushi since leaving California! Totally worth the wait. This place was so good! we ordered 4 different rolls (6 per roll) and just demolished them. The cool part about France is that they really like their salmon out here, so all but one of the rolls had salmon in it! My favorite one was rice and cream cheese wrapped in salmon, I think I could have had 4 rolls of that alone. It was good to share because it meant that I left satisfied but not stuffed.

After dinner, we just chilled at Arlene’s place, chatted with Lindsay for a bit, then went to bed. We wanted to be well rested for DISNEYLAND Paris tomorrow!!!! Details to be posted ASAP.

Hiya everyone! So, I am at Arlene’s school, CEA, and I thought I would update you all while I she is in her fashion class. Be warned, there are no pictures because I forgot my cord to connect my camera to the computer, I will let you all know when I get some pictures on here.

Going back a few days to Thursday, March 24th 2011. I was super stressed out all day due to my three essays that were due before I left for Paris. To explain, let me fill you in on why I had this much stress.

So, at the very beginning of our semester here in Cardiff we were told by 3 of our teachers to just turn in the Coursework Assessment that they had assigned everyone else in the class the semester before we got there. Technically our Spring Break started on Friday, March 25th, so that is when all of our assignments were due. Three essays (all 3 pages or longer) due by March 25th, no big, totally do-able.

Dilemma - booking a flight to Paris on EasyJet is apparently very confusing for me because I clicked on the cheapest flight for what I thought was the 25th of March and it ended up being for the 24th of March. I didn’t learn of this until the weekend before my papers were due…. kind of a bummer when you realize that you have one less day than you thought to get all of your work done.

Which brings us back to Thursday. Didn’t go to bed until 5:30am, all three essays were completed, and I was 80% packed for Paris. Turned in my essays at 10:30, forgot something and had to run back to the assignment office to place the papers inside the folder and then hurry to finish up my packing so that I could catch my 2:45pm bus to Bristol airport.

I got to the bus station and the man at the front desk said that the bus was running late, I thought alright, no big deal. Until it turned out that it was a whole half hour behind schedule! The transfer I had to make was at the Bristol coach station, I caught the next Bristol City bus out of there and prayed that I wouldn’t miss the boarding of my flight. It was 4:35pm and I had to be in the gates by 5:35, which doesn’t seem hard unless you knew that I had a 45 minute bus ride to get to the airport.

Finally at the airport (5:20pm) I learned that EasyJet doesn’t assign seats and ALL passengers have to check in at the desk before they can go through security. My carry-on wasn’t small enough (stupid wheels) so I had to check it in, go to a separate desk, pay, get a receipt, bring the receipt back to the original desk, and finally get my boarding pass for the flight. The time is now 5:25pm and I have to get through security and get to my gate ASAP! There would be a LONG line of people at security, and there would be only one person doing all of the checking of bags and boarding passes, and of course most of those people would be somewhat clueless of security procedures… needless to say I was checking the time on my phone every 10 seconds.

Luckily, I made it through security, to my gate and on my flight! From there it seemed like smooth sailing. Once in Charles du Galle Airport the only thing between me and France was the boarding pass check; which wasn’t bad, not fast, but not terribly long. I then grabbed my suitcase and booked it through the arrival gates to find Arlene waiting there for me! Yes I had made it!

We ate at a restaurant called Hippopotamus. We both had a burger and fries with a sangria, apparently it is the best in France. I was so caught up with everything that I had kinda forgot to eat that day so I demolished my meal. After dinner we took the RER A to the main transfer station (Chatelet) and caught the #7 Metro to Arlene’s apartment.

After a little walk we finally made it to her place, and took the SMALLEST elevator that I have ever seen in my life to the top floor of the building. Seriously, this elevator can fit 4 average sized girls, as long as they don’t have any personal space issues. If I were to guess dimensions, probably 6 feet deep, 4.5 ft wide, and 9 ft tall. My slight claustrophobia didn’t appreciate it, that is for sure.

Once in the apartment I met two of Arlene’s three flatmates, Leslie and Lindsay. I was pretty tired so the overall intro was brief. Lindsay is the girl who Arlene actually shares her room with, she is from Colorado, and Leslie lives upstairs with a girl named Devon (sp?), Leslie if from Tennessee. After meeting and greeting it was time for bed! After three days of 5-3 hours of sleep I was exhausted to say the least.

Day 1 in Paris: Friday, 25 March, 2011

The biggest upside to leaving a day early from Wales is that I was able to join Arlene and her wine tasting class at the Wine Expo that was going on in Paris from the 25th to the 28th or March. Yes, you heard me, Wine Expo, 1000’s of wines from all the different wine valley’s of France. I spent a good chunk of my day tasting AMAZING reds, whites, and roses from different wine valleys, FOR FREE!!!!! (I got in with Arlene’s class) This event must be huge because there were tons of older men and women who were walking in and carrying travel dolly’s and loading up case after case of wine on to them. I can’t blame them though, these fine wines were selling for as cheap at 6 euro (10-11 dollars) per bottle.

Leslie, Arlene and I went around the expo with some other girls from Arlene’s class - Brittany, Leah, and Gina - and focused specifically on rose wines from the Provence Valley of France. Arlene’s group actually had to do research about the wines; the grapes used in the wines, where the flavors came from, the fermenting process used for each of the wines we tasted, etc. Leslie and I just kinda went along and enjoyed drinking the wines and talking about what we thought on our own. :D

About halfway through 3 1/2 hours we spent there all 6 of us were definitely feeling tipsy from all of the wine we were trying and decided to get some food. Around the Expo there were sandwich places, all of them selling Fois Gras (pronounced Fwah Grah) sandwiches. Now I learned that Fois Gras is duck liver and honestly, I like it! I thought my Fois Gras sandwich was so good!

Once we were done eating it was back to tasting. The girls were getting tired of rose Provence wine and starting tasting wines from the Champagne Valley as well. Leslie found a booth seling Corsica wines and, being a red wine girl, she told me that if there is a red wine I have to taste it is a Corsica wine. So we did, and I found one that I thought tasted so good that I bought it, for my dad to try, for 9 euro! After that purchase it seemed like the girls were kinda done with wine for a day and we all left the Expo and went our separate ways.

After the Expo we went back to Arlene’s apartment and literally passed out for a few hours tired from all the wine we drank. When we woke up Lindsay, Arlene and I went to Mouffetard to look at all of the cute shops, outdoor markets, cafes, and restaurants. Apparently this is where the girls go to drink, hang, eat and party more often than not. After wandering around for a bit we finally sat down to eat at their favorite Greek food place called La Crete. This place had THE BEST Greek Salad that I have eaten and their chicken was amazing. I can honestly say that I am still not used to how much bread people give you in restaurants. In America, the restaurants always skimp on the bread, only giving enough for each person to have one piece. In France, they just give you basketfulls of fresh, soft, bread as often as the basket is empty. Amazing.

After La Crete we walked back to Arlene’s place to get ready to go out for the evening. We were going to meet Antonia, another friend in the program, her two of her friends from Nor Cal at Cap Rouge. Once we got there the bouncer at the front just let us in, no ID check, nothing. Apparently a lot of the workers know Antonia and Lindsay, so we had some pull when we arrived. We went to the bar and all ordered a vodka redbull. This vodka redbull was literally 3 shots of vodka in a cup, it looked like I ordered a water and a redbull when they were separate. I was told the bar tender is very generous on his alcohol pouring because, again, Lindsay and Antonia were cool with the employees. Fine by me, 8 euro for essentially a triple vodka redbull.

The night was just a ton of fun because we were out with all American girls and one French guy, which means that it wasn’t weird being loud and crazy like American girls seem to be when alcohol is involved. We were dancing, taking pictures, laughing, talking. Just a great first night out in Paris if I do say so myself. After Cap Rouge it was munchie time, what better than a crepe with beef, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sauce to cure that. It literally tasted like a taco bell burrito, only WAY better! I want to go back for another before I leave. Maybe even have one with nutella too. That was essentially my night though, after the crepe most of us were ready for bed, and Arlene and I had a hike to get to fairly early the next morning.

Arlene’s class is done, time for me to go. Next update will be during her next class later today! Cheers!

For St. Patrick’s Day my friends who are studying abroad at the same time as me all decided that it would be awesome to meet up in London and hang out, see the sights!

Wednesday, 16 March, 2011: Leave for London

It was the perfect plan. Take the bus to the Victoria coach station, meet up with Pam, take the Undergroud to King’s Cross Station, take the train to Hatfield. But no, life never goes according to plan. My bus got caught behind a huge car accident and stayed parked on the freeway for just over an hour and a half. Needless to say I got a lot of my work done that I had brought with me for the ride, but Pam and I weren’t able to meet up and travel together.

Victoria Train/Underground Station was CRAZY when I finally got there! I think I arrived just as many business people were on their way home from work because there were a ton of people in business wear walking with great purpose to different platforms in every direction. I am pretty sure I narrowly avoided being trampled about 4 times trying to find the Victoria Underground Station. I wish I took a picture to show you all the mass chaos that I found myself in the middle of while I was there.

Finally on the Tube, I got off at Kings Cross and found my way to Platforms 9, 10, and 11 and discovered that I had about 30 minutes until the next train to Hatfield. What would you do if you had 30 minutes to kill and were at Platforms 9, 10, and 11 at King’s Cross Station.

Yes, I did find Platform 9 and 3/4 that night, and like a lame-o, had a family who was also there taking pictures of their daughters take one of me as well. A little embarrassing looking back on it now, but oh well!

Once I finally caught my train, I was off to Hatfield! So excited to finally meet up with KJ, Nina, and Pam who were waiting for me. Only one more obstacle stood between me and my arrival, a taxi from the train station to campus! Which doesn’t sound like a daunting task unless you are me and make such basic things complicated. Nina tells me that the cab was silver and of course there are 4 silver cabs there. One of which, the one I needed, I didn’t even seen until it was about to leave me there. But I did manage to catch it, and of course I had to get the driver that would try to bribe me to come back to Hatfield with an iPad purchased from America so he could save some money. Let’s just say it was a long 5 min cab ride.

After 7 and a half hours of travel I finally arrived at Hatfield and jumped on Nina, KJ, and Pam as soon as I saw them! It had been a long day, and I missed those girls so much as it was, it was just amazing to see them! After about 10 minutes of settling in KJ’s room, it was off to dinner at Sab’s place! It was so great seeing Sabrina! I think it is very cool that she is still rowing out here.For dinner Sabrina was preparing Lasagna, Cheesy Garlic Bread, and Green Beans.

bleh, green beans

Lasagna - demolished

I love her cooking, and I was stuffed after dinner. But she also was making Chocolate Croissant Rolls from scratch for dessert! DELICIOUS! We left Sabs satiated and sleepy. Once the air mattresses were acquired and blown up it was time to get some sleep for the long day ahead!

Thursday, 17 March 2011: St. Patrick’s Day

Woke up to a phone call in KJ’s room from Arlene saying she had arrived in King’s Cross Station! It was 7:30 am. Sleepily KJ and I got up and got ready while waiting for another call from Arlene saying she was at Hatfield Station so we could call her a cab to campus. We met her near the same spot Nina, KJ, and Pam had met me only 12 hours previous.

Around 10:30 we started our day and met Caitlin near one of the main taxi pick-up spots on campus. After much hugging and greeting we jumped into a 6 person taxi to Hatfield Station! Once there we bought our all-day, group rate tickets so we could travel above and under ground all day, in all the zones. After figuring out all the money stuff from everyone we went up to the platform and waited for the train.

Pam, Caitlin, Arlene, Nina and KJ waiting for the train

KJ and I waiting for the train

It was a bit cold out on the platform after a super fast train came rushing by!

Finally made it on the train!

From the train we stopped at Platform 9 and 3/4 for pictures! This time it wasn’t as embarrassing for me, so I had a little more fun with it!

And got a picture of the whole group while we were there!

After taking those pictures we immediately jumped on the Tube to go have lunch at Nando’s! It is such an amazing restaurant full of spicy food! Mmmmm spicy food. After we had our fill, we walked across the street to KJs favorite coffee place. Arlene, KJ, and I tried KJ’s favorite, a Flat White, while Nina, Pam, and Caitlin sufficed with Mocha’s and Hot Chocolate respectively. What I really liked about the place is that they made cool designs in the foam for all of the drinks!

After our long stop for food and drink in SoHo we felt it was time to do a little sightseeing! Back to the Underground we went!

We found it to be a bit windy, which was surprising since we weren’t anywhere near the trains…

First stop of the London Drinking/Sightseeing tour was London Tower. Lucky for us the Tube exit led us right to an area that gave us a view of the Tower!

From the over look we went into the British Navy Memorial, there was a lot to see, and all of the dedication to those Navy men was so great! But, being who we were we also found some great places to take some silly pictures while still trying to respect it’s true purpose for being there.

From the Memorial it was on to explore and head towards the River Thames and the Tower Bridge. On the way we saw more of the London Tower, the Gherkin, and even a nice lookout spot to take pictures of the Tower Bridge.

More of the London Tower

“The Gherkin”

The gang with the Tower Bridge!

We walked a little further and then found ourselves on the Tower Bridge, walking over the River Thames! It was a somewhat short walk, but it had some amazing views!

Once on the other side of the bridge it seemed like we stepped in to the 21st century side of London. Almost all of the buildings we passed seemed to be made of glass and steel. There was a little bit of nature, but not a whole lot.

From there we walked down an alley way and ended up in what looked like WWII era buildings with propaganda posters and everything. That moment is my total definition of London, seems like you take a turn and you find yourself in a different era surrounded by a completely different atmosphere. Truly only an essence that UK and European countries could have since they have been around for so much longer than the US. Plus, in the US I feel like people try to plan out cities better, which is good because it makes sense, but bad because there is no room for many flaws. Flaws that give cities and towns character.

After some wandering we figured out where we wanted to go next, St. Paul’s Cathedral! The Cathedral where Charles and Diana were married not terribly long ago. Unfortunately it isn’t the place where William and Kate will be married, but that is not important. St. Paul’s is unfortunately not open for touring, unless you pay a very nice price, but even from what little bit I could see I knew that I would love to come back and get a in depth view, maybe even go to the sightseeing deck above the main dome.

Across the street from the Cathedral

Different views of the Cathedral that we saw!

From St. Paul’s we walked to and over the Millennium Bridge, the one from the Harry Potter movie! Nothing too special about it, but it did give us some great views of the Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s.

Three Bridges!

We walked back over the bridge and headed to our first Pub stop of the day/evening, The Toucan. KJ, Arlene, Pam and I ordered a pint of Guinness and Caitlin and Nina ordered a Cider and Black. It was nice to slow down a bit and just enjoy the company of my friends around me while enjoying a beer! :D

We toasted to a great rest of the day, finished our drinks and began the search for The Humming Bird Bakery, supposed home of some super tasty treats! I bought a Cheesecake Brownie, Pam got a slice of Red Velvet Cake, and Arlene and Nina each had a cupcake.

From the Hummingbird Bakery we moved on to our second Pub of the day/evening. Not quite sure what it’s name was, we just kinda walked in and bought our drinks. No stopping to think about it, it was St. Patrick’s Day after all. 

I also found a pretty awesome hat to help me celebrate the occasion!

From this pub we went on the Tube and arrived at Ben’s Cookies just at the sun was starting to set. The cookies looked so good that I bought two and shared one with Pam! I bought Milk Chocolate and Oatmeal Rasin. I highly recommend this place to anyone who has the chance to visit London. SO GOOD!

From Ben’s we jumped on the Tube again and got off right underneath Big Ben! We walked out onto the bridge and took tons and tons of pictures of Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye before we actually walked over to the London Eye so we could ride it!

The London Eye, had green lights on it for the holiday!

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in St. Steven’s Tower

Out of everything we could do in London, the only thing on my list was to go on the London Eye and see the entire city of London. I am so glad that we decided to do it at night, because the way the buildings were lit up and how the outline of the river could be seen from a 360 degree view was breathtaking

Plus, it was a half hour ride, so you know that we had some fun in there! I am glad the other people really didn’t mind our antics!

After the amazing ride on the London Eye, it was safe to say we were SO HUNGRY! After taking a quick trip to see the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey closer up we bee-lined it to find a place to eat. We found a place called Pizza Express, and it just felt good to sit down and relax. I didn’t even realize that we had been on the go for pretty much 8 hours straight with little to no sitting. In the words of KJ, “my dogs were barkin’!” I think somewhere through out the day I tweaked my ankle because after that point if I put pressure on my ankle in certain ways there was a slight pain around my ankle area.

We all bought a personal size pizza and every one of us demolished it completely! We kinda forgot to have a legitimate meal after Nando’s until our stop at Pizza Express. After dinner some of us caffiened up (KJ, Arlene and I) and then we were on our way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

The main focus of the evening, a place KJ was looking forward to all day, was Waxy O’Connors. This was the largest, most popular Irish Pub in London. Needless to say, it was PACKED!

We found a place on the upper level of the place that wasn’t as packed, but it was still pretty crowded. We tried to stray from there once and just found ourselves caught in the waves of people you see above, so we immediately went back to the upper level and spent most of the night there. KJ and I bought what was called a “Baby Guinness,” which we thought was like a half pint of Guinness. To our surprise, we found out that we paid for a 4 pound shot that was comprised of some kind of liqueur and Bailey’s. It was delicious, but SO EXPENSIVE! Our next purchase was made so we could be on the safe side, Cider and Black. 

Throughout the night they played some pretty decent music, amid the Flogging Molly and other classic Irish Tunes we heard some “Livin’ on a Prayer” and Grease Music. After about 5 guys over the age of 27 hitting on us American girls, we decided to try another place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

After literally shoving our way through the crowds to get to the Exit of the Pub we ended up finding a Night Club across the street, didn’t catch the name. I think most of us were happy to be in more of our element, dancing to some good remixes of some pretty popular hip hop songs. I know that I was happy to be dancing! I really wish we had found that place earlier in the evening because it seemed like we were just getting into it when all of the house lights turned on. We didn’t know that when we entered the club it was pretty close to closing… total bummer.

The night only seemed to get more interesting from there. Turns out the entire underground was closed for the night, meaning we had to find another way to get to King’s Cross Station. We though bus was a pretty good idea, till we figured out that any bus we took would require a transfer and it seemed like too much work to go 2 miles up the road. We settled on taking a taxi, which was a good plan, except that all of the taxis that we hailed could hold a maximum of 5 people - we had six. After a few failed attempts to hail a taxi van, we just decided to split up 3 to a cab and meet at King’s Cross.

Finally at King’s Cross Station, we walked over to Platforms 9, 10, and 11 only to find that the last train had left the station at 1:36am - it was 1:56am. This meant that we were stuck in London until the next train out in the morning, which turned out to be 5:22am. For about 3 1/2 hours we waited at St. Pancras International train station across the street from King’s Cross. The first problem to fix, for more myself than anyone else, was finding a bathroom. Once that was accomplished the next big problem was that due to there being two gaping voids in the entrance way of St. Pancras we had to find a place to sit that wasn’t directly hit by the wind and cold of the early morning London weather. We found some fairly comfortable chairs around the corner of an area in the center of the station, and here we stayed bundled up and close together trying to stay warm.

Finally, we had to figure out what the heck to do for 3 1/2 hours. Being the girls that we were, we found enough to talk about to keep us occupied for almost the entire time. It also helped that Caitlin had her iPhone with music on it!

Finally 5am rolled around, we went to the 24 hour Starbucks bought some food and a warm drink. We then bought our tickets for the Hatfield train and went to the platform. Thankfully our train to Hatfield wasn’t stopping at every stop so the trip to the Hatfield station didn’t seem terribly long. From the station we called another taxi and were dropped off at the campus. We said our goodbyes to Caitlin, who lives off campus, and then proceeded to walk to the dorms. To our dismay, daylight was breaking as we walked.

Finally back at the dorms, we all pretty much passed out. It was 6:30am.

Friday, 18 March 2011: Leaving London

My coach left at 1pm from the Victoria Coach Station, so I was up again at 10am to shower and pack my stuff so I could catch a cab and catch the 11:23am train from Hatfield. It is kinda sad that I was at the same train stations within 5 1/2 hours.

Thankfully, Pam decided to cut her trip to London short and traveled with me the whole way from Hatfield to the Victoria Coach station. Both of us were pretty much in a zombie-like daze for the entire trip. It was really nice to have some company though, it made the trip a lot better. Finally at the coach station, I bought some food for breakfast/lunch while Pam changed her ticket. When she was done we said our goodbyes and I headed to my terminal to wait for my bus.

It should be pretty obvious that I didn’t do any work on the bus ride back to Cardiff, I totally passed out and slept for most of the trip. Once back in Cardiff, I caught the bus back to campus and it happened to be the same bus Scott, Kate’s boyfriend, caught after work and Emily and Cristina caught after grocery shopping! They all took one look at me and determined that I must have had an interesting time in London.

Once back at the dorms I filled in the girls on my trip, had some dinner, watched the Glee episode that I missed, and played with my pictures. Then it was off to bed for some well needed sleep.

The jist of my trip to London is that I had a St. Patrick’s Day to remember, and I am stoked that I got to spend it with the people that I did. It made the trip that much more epic! Definitely one for the books, to be passed on year after year. I can see it now, “Do you remember that St. Patrick’s Day in London… oh yeah I do!”

Saturday, 19th March 2011: Recovery

Just so you all know how much that crazy day affected me, I didn’t wake up until 5pm this morning. I slept for almost 16 hours. Needless to say, I will be up late getting the work I need to do done! Wish me luck as I try to get it all finished before church at 11am tomorrow! :D

Hiya!

FINALLY I am posting about Ireland! No time to waste, here we go!

Day 1: Thursday, 3 March, 2011

Pretty much just a travel day. No class and I was out at the bus stop by 8:15am. Stayed up late packing, so feeling a bit tired just to start. Caught the bus from campus into the City Centre, then caught a bus from the City Centre to Cardiff Airport. Flight was delayed by almost an hour. Finally landed in Dublin and eventually realized Arlene and I were in different terminals. Finally together we had to wait 45 mins for the Coach that would drop us off at the tram station. Caught the tram, got off at our stop, then had to find the hotel. Finally arrived at the hotel at 3:30pm.

Yeah, I was exhausted. Stayed in the room, ate at the hotel, and passed out.

Day 2: Friday, 4 March, 2011

Time to take our map and EXPLORE! We took the tram to the City Centre of Dublin and started our day exploring Trinity College. The campus was awe inspiring to say the least. So many old, historical looking buildings that were such things as classrooms, dining halls, and dorms.

The Entrance to Trinity College

After giving ourselves a self-guided tour of the campus we found a sculpture called “Sphere Within Sphere” in front of the Berkeley Library.

I thought it looked familiar so when I got back to Wales I found a picture of a similar piece, it was in front of the UN building in New York. I had visited it in 2005 when I went to New York with the Wind Ensemble to perform in Carnegie Hall.

It was so crazy to me seeing a similar structure on two different continents! Apparently it is one of about 10 similar pieces, all titled the same “Sphere Within Sphere No. …” There is one near the Vatican in Rome, another in Washington DC, one on the UC Berkeley Campus in California, and a few others throughout the US. It is now a goal of mine to see and take a photograph of all of them (except probably the one in Tehran) before I die! I finally have something for my Bucket List!

From the sculpture it was off to see The Book of Kells! It is a very old illuminated manuscript of the Old Testament - the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts, together with Celtic knots and interlacing patterns in vibrant colors, enliven the manuscript’s pages. The pages of the book are made of the finest calf vellum. In the first room the walls are filled with information about the symbols within each drawing in the Book. Only four pages were actually displayed, one of which was the infamous Chi Rho Page. But it was amazing just to look at

After the Book of Kells, the route out takes you through the Trinity College Library, more specifically the Long Room. Unfortunately, photographs were still not allowed for this part of the tour either. I told myself that I was going to try to write about it so that it could be seen as if I took a picture, because this place was phenomenal. As I walked into the Library, I felt like I walked into the library scene from Beauty and the Beast, the part where the Beast unveils the library to Belle for a present. My eyes immediately became assaulted by shelf after shelf of books, floor to ceiling, for two whole stories! The ceiling was rounded making the room that much more monumental. There was a spiral staircase to get to the second level, and a ladder to every section in every row. The hall seemed to stretch into infinity, row after row as far as I could see over the crowd of people. The books looked super old, some with frayed spines, others simply dusty. At the end of each row on the first floor was a marble bust of thinkers of the past ranging from Socrates and Plato, to William Shakespeare, to Sir Francis Bacon. I think I walked around the whole place with my jaw on the floor, eyes skirting left and right as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t miss anything,  and hand firmly on my camera resisting all urges to take a picture. I wish I could have read a book from one of the shelves….. :(

If you would like to see what it looks like I actually found a picture on the internet, you can see if my description does it any justice.

http://skippyshamrock.tripod.com/longroom.jpg

For those of you who are quite into the Star Wars, the design of this room was replicated in the layout for the Jedi Archives in the movie.

After the Book of Kells and the Long Room of the Library, we went off down Grafton St. Essentially, the shopping district of Dublin. After some shopping around we found a genuine Celtic Jewelry Store where we both bought Claddagh Rings! Highlight of the trip right here! After the rings we went right next door and bought some chocolate and then walked across the street into St. Stephen’s Green Park to sit and relax. Which we did, for about 7 minutes maximum

, and then we proceeded to go through the park and take TONS of pictures.

After our park photo shoot, we went back to shopping until we were hungry. We had lunch at a pub called Bruxlles. We both had the lunch special which was a turkey, cheese, and tomato grilled sandwich, chips, coleslaw, and a cup of soup with a drink. We didn’t think there was a better deal on the menu.

After lunch we wandered to Temple Bar, the more bohemian part of Dublin. Around here you can just feel a more relaxed, laid back atmosphere. People just setting up and playing their instrument where ever they please. No one is making them leave, and many stop to give the performers the attention they deserve. Surrounding the main street of Temple Bar are pubs, lots and lots of pubs. All filled to capacity by as early as 5:30 in the evening. After wandering through Temple Bar we decided to walk all the way along the River Liffey to go see a ferris wheel that we could see from Temple Bar. The walk was a lot of fun. We passed 4 different bridges along the walk, the custom house, the convention center, and even a Famine Memorial before we reached the Ferris Wheel.

Custom House

Samuel Beckett Bridge, Built in 2009

Dublin Convention Center

Famine Memorial

[The Ferris Wheel]

By the time we walked back, we were starving and cold. First stop was a Starbucks for a quick something to warm ourselves up before treking back to Temple bar. We asked one of the employees about good places to eat around town and she recommended a place called Pintxo (pronounced Peencho). She was very vague on the details on how to get there, so we said thank you and decided that we would go to the general area she described and if we found it, great, if not, that was fine too. Boy am I glad we found it!

Inside Pintxo it was dimmly lit by candles and a bit cramped near the bar. The entire restaurant is lined with bottles of wine though, I thought that was pretty cool. Pintxo is a restaurant that only serves tapas, or appetizers. We ordered a glass of wine each and about 4 tapas off of the menu - lemon and herb grilled chicken, stuffed mushrooms, grilled vegetables with cheese and tomato sauce, and scallops. Between ordering and actually being served we were moved from the bar to an actual table. By the time our food was served, we were starving and immediately dug in.

With each bite of our food it seemed to taste better and better. I can honestly say that I am not a picky eater in the slightest, but I know that I have never tasted anything as good as what I ate that night at Pintxo! My mouth was watering and all of the flavors from the food seemed to be doing a number on my palate. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better… we ordered dessert. I ordered Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake and Arlene ordered Churros with Chocolate Dressing.

We left Pintxo totally satisfied. Thus, we headed back to the hotel in a food coma and sore feet from the day.

Day 3, Saturday, 5 March, 2011

Free Walking Tour of Dublin and Tour of the Guinness Storehouse

Today Arlene and I joined the 11am Walking Tour of Dublin. Our tour guide, Chris was very funny and informative.

The main portion of our tour involved us being in and around Dublin Castle.

We learned about the many attempts the Irish had on reclaiming their country back from the English. All of the different people, different strategies and attempts seemed to fail in one way or another. Not from lack of effort, but just from the fact that England had the upper hand in almost every situation.

What I thought was cool about the castle was that there are 4 different types of structuring. Medieval, for the actual castle tower, Victorian, for the part of the building on one side of the tower, Georgian, for the part of the building on the other side, and finally, what Chris called Lego, for the pretty colors found farther from the main castle tower. The only reason given for those colors is that the architect liked them. A perfectly sound reason to paint a castle so bright.

From the castle we went into the castle garden. There is a large grassy circle with a very intricate celtic design made of brick. Not only is this grass patch the center of the garden, it is also the helicopter pad for the castle. Beyond the grass there was a very castle-esque building called the Coach House.

Entrance Sign

When asked what it was, Chris told us that this castle was built to block the view of the poor and starving people from those who inhabited the castle. Originally an idea to put many of those people to work and create more jobs, but misinterpreted by the head of the guard who was disgusted by that part of the city to begin with.

From the Castle Garden we walked to Temple Bar and learned about how that area of the city was originally supposed to be temporary housing for the influx of people in Dublin. The housing was cheap and rundown and inhabited by the artists, musicians, and students that couldn’t afford anything nicer. As more people settled in the area stared having art galleries, pubs, shops. When the government finally came back to reclaim the land they realized that Temple Bar had come into it’s own. Instead of getting rid of it, they improved it; build roads, made the living arrangements more insulated and safer. That is how Temple Bar, the bohemian center of Dublin became what it still is today.

Sign on a wall next to a pub

Wall of Fame: All of the pictures represent a famous Irish musician/music group

The coolest graffiti work that I saw in Temple Bar

From Temple Bar, after a quick stop for coffee/tea/snacks/etc., we were out and walking. We walked to Trinity College and there we heard about the Book of Kells and the Library, stuff that Arlene and I already looked into ourselves. From Trinity College we walked on to what I would consider the museum district. He brought us to a place where the Natural History Museum and Portrait Gallery were located, told us some stuff about it and we were walking again in no time.

We ended the tour at a corner of St. Stephen’s Green that Arlene and I didn’t explore the day prior. On this corner there was a statue of a man, whose name I honestly forget now, who was apparently a Protestant, English, land owner and who also fought for Irish independence from England. He was a man who saw what was happening to the people of the country he was inhabiting and he didn’t like what he saw.

He actually ended up dying for the cause. It was because of people like this man that the flag of Ireland is Green, White, AND Orange. Green stands for the Catholicism, the religion of the Irish people. White stands for Peace. Orange stands for Protestantism, the religion of those Englishmen, like the one in the statue, who risked their lives for a people unlike themselves.

Opposite this statue was another statue. This statue was a depiction of the Irish people at the time, during the famine and the belittlement and the hell that the Irish people were put through for decades.

The way Chris went into detail about how parents would try to “beat the Irish” out of their children was heartbreaking. Over half way through the famine Irish people learned that they only way to survive was to become more English. So parents would punish their children for singing classic Irish songs, speaking in an Irish accent, simply bringing up any kind of traditional Irish anything. All of it was banned from households just so that the parents knew their children would be better off in Ireland while it was being oppressed by England.

Ireland’s exports actually tripled during the time of the potato famine because all of the Irish had been kicked of the fertile land and left to live in the mountains. The English men and their families who now owned and worked the land didn’t think to try to feed the starving Irish that could be seen in and around the city, but rather they would send it away to other countries. Other countries who Ireland had never been in contact with tried to send grains to help them, but the English Navy was ordered to blockade those ships of grain so instead of getting help, more Irish people suffered.

As morose of a way to end a tour as these stories were, it was good to truly understand where the Irish hatred for the English comes from. I personally feel like they have a lot of pretty good reasons to be. Cuts like those run deep, hopefully they can heal. Only time will tell.

After the three hour tour, Arlene and I were pretty exhausted and hungry. We stopped at a place called Bailey and had a quick but relaxing lunch with some tea. We didn’t have too much time to relax because we had other plans for our day… the Guinness Storehouse tour!

From Bailey we booked it to the Storehouse. Though we had to walk through a worse portion of Dublin to get there, the walk was worth it. The Storehouse is an 8 story building with the history of Guinness on floors 1-7. The tour started off with how Guinness is made.

Then it moved on to the history of Arthur Guinness and the timeline of all other Brew Masters after him.

From the timeline was moved on a mini tasting session where we were shown how to enjoy Guinness to it’s fullest. From there we move on to two whole levels dedicated to Advertising, Drinking IQ, history of Guinness in different countries, and even an area where you can try to pour the perfect pint of Guinness.

The very top floor is called the Gravity Bar. It provides a 360 degree view of Dublin, when it isn’t cloudy and overcast, like it was when Arlene and I went. BUT the Galaxy Bar is also where you get your complimentary pint of Guinness. After we got our pints we went back downstairs to a room that was showing old advertisements for Guinness. They were actually really funny.

Victory, first taste of Guinnes: Accomplished! Verdict: DELICIOUS!

From the Guinness Storehouse we headed back into Temple Bar to see if we could have as much luck with another restaurant as we did with Pintxo. After a lot of souvenir shopping and looking around we found a place called King Charlies. 

It was a very nice asian cuisine restaurant. It was quiet and the chairs were comfortable, especially after such a long day of walking in and around Dublin. We ordered Chicken Curry and Duck for dinner. I have decided that I am not a big fan of duck, too much fat in each piece that I had.

But I am proud to say that I at least tried it.

After dinner, again we were so exhausted from walking around all day that Arlene and I just called it a night and went back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 4, Sunday 6 March, 2011

Unfortunately the day of leaving had to come. It felt like it came way to fast though. Not much to report about this day. Got up way early to catch a tram, that we missed and ended up taking a cab to the airport. We made it with plenty of time to spare before our separate flights back to Wales and Paris, so no stress was had. Always a good thing. When I landed in Cardiff I didn’t see my bag on the baggage claim carousel. After a quick panic, I went to an employee and he found it with all of the flight attendant’s luggage from the flight. Finally back in Cardiff, it was time to start getting my projects done. Boo homework….

Dublin was an amazing trip, and I can’t wait for Easter Break to go on my biggest adventure I will probably ever experience!

Until next time, CHEERS!

Hey all,

So, I know I need to post Ireland stuff, and I will, but I actually want to write about school and stuff for today.

I like pretty much all of my classes here at UWIC, they all seem to be interesting in their different ways.

Trampolining is the most fun of course! We are learning how to do 3/4 flips and half twists out of landings. I look forward to this class the most because 1) it’s a sport, so of course I love doing it and 2) it is a great combination of strength physically and mentally, but also a balance between power, control, and technique. I feel like I have picked it up pretty quickly, and I am going to go to the actual team practice just to get some more bounce time this week. I can’t wait to videotape what I have learned!

Exercise Physiology is really fun. I love the lab, the lecture is alright. Lab classes out here are so much more hands on, it is just phenominal… well to an extent. So far I have been a subject in an actual experiment we ran and we have to do a legitimate write up in journal article format. I did a VO2max test (test for O2 levels near exhaustion) and then did a sprint test while hooked up to a heart rate monitor! We also practiced finding the proper place to put electrodes on a person for an ECG test. There are 10 leads that can be used for a full 360 view of the hearts electrical signals to see how the heart is doing on a person.

This is where the extent of the awesomeness of the class comes in though…This portion of the class required me to be shirtless for an entire hour and a half practical… two weeks in a row. Thankfully though, there were screens and the guys and girls were separated. But, on top of that awkwardness, I need to mention that 6 of the 10 electrodes all are in the general vicinity of the left chest region. No only am I being accidentally exposed and poked and prodded around the middle of my chest, but I also had to practice electrode placement on others; you try working around a bra and not making it awkward…

Learning in Sport is a really cool class in the sense that the techniques of coaching and learning skills that I am being shown are informative and interesting to think about. Sometimes it makes me think about past coaches I have had and which ones they did or didn’t use. Other times it gets me thinking about what I want or should do if I even become a coach or teacher of some kind. Also, I try to see what could be useful for situations like being a Physical Therapist and motivating my patient.

Research Methods was kind of a joke of a class, but I think only because I have taken a research methods class for Psychology already. I did like it though because I think the stuff I did learn will be useful for any sort of thesis research I may have to do in DPT school or any experiments I may run after. We shall see.

Finally, Health and Special Populations. This class seems to jump around a lot with what it covers. First it was alcohol, smoking, drugs. Then we learned about how the body metabolizes and stores fats, proteins and carbs for a few weeks (super indepth stuff). Now we are learning about psychosocial effects on adults and children when it comes to participation in sports/activities. Finally something that is interesting to me! :D

So those are the classes I am taking abroad…. I just like how most of them are either very hands on, or they try to put the theory in real scenarios so that I can understand it’s significance. :D

In other news… It is Ash Wednesday today! Went to church after class today, got my ashes, and then realized that I actually had to give something up for Lent. The biggest factor that was making decisions tough is that half of Lent I am here in Cardiff, doing my three projects that are due near the end of March. But in the other half I am out in other countries on Spring Break, wanting to try new things and drink coffee to avoid eating lots of food that costs money at the same time. So the usual foods - chocolate, sweets, etc - were kinda out, as well as coffee, see above for why. So this Lent I am not giving anything up, rather adding something on. I am going to make it a point every day to talk/communicate/get a hold of a family member or a friend that I haven’t talked to in a while. The main idea is just reconnect with those that have been kinda sloughed off in the hustle and bustle of college and life. I know it is going to be difficult over spring break, so I am saving that stuff for the girls that I am actually going to be traveling with (Pam, Nina, Allison, KP). I am thinking that I will do as much as I can, given my plans for Spring Break. 

That is all I have for today, until next time (hopefully Ireland is next)…. CHEERS!

The Continuation…..

Day 3, Friday 25 February 2011: A day spent roaming to places we saw the day before on your many tours and adventures. Essentially Emily, Cristina and I went back to Old Town Edinburgh to see a few of the sights in a little more detail. First stop, St. Giles Cathedral.

Not actually a Catholic Cathedral, but still beautiful on the inside with all of it’s stained glass and an amazing organ right in the middle and to the right of the church!

Don’t mind the creeper in the back…

From St. Giles it was on to Edinburgh Castle! We walked up the Royal Mile to Castlehill and finally entered over the drawbridge! :D Besides boasting incredible views of the whole town, Edinburgh castle, it seems, is just built on tons and tons of history.

The first, and most well known, of which is the story of William Wallace. Those movie buffs know this as the movie Braveheart. Unfortunately, no one in Scotland really thinks that the movie is very accurate. The biggest problem that I have heard about is that William Wallace was a man pushing 7 ’ in height, Mel Gibson… pushing 5’5” maybe. They just don’t like that when people think of this strong, driven man, many will think Mel Gibson. I can totally see where they are coming from on that one.

The Real Story: When the English invaded Scotland and took over Edinburgh Castle, Wallace was at the forefront of the Scots. Believing in his country and his freedom more than anything. He began is process working on smaller castles and gaining momentum until he tried to hit Edinburgh. By the time Edinburgh Castle came around it was only Wallace and 30 of the strongest Scotsmen he could find. The free climbed up the rocky face beneath the castle and overtook the 1500 English soldiers… in their sleep! A sneaky one, but a victory for the Scots all the same. Once recapturing the castle they actually burned it down, thinking that if there was no castle to conquer the English would just leave. You know what… THEY DID!

Originally the main strong hold for the Scottish of Edinburgh, it had many museums dedicated to those soldiers who gave their lives for Scotland. The Scottish Grey’s are what the military are currently called, but they come from a long lineage of other military units.

Also housed in Edinburgh Castle are the Royal Honours, which consist of The Crown, the Scepter, the Sword, and…the Stone of Destiny. Yes, you read correctly, the Stone of Destiny. This stone is a huge red sandstone slab where it was tradition for many kings of Scotland to be crowned while standing on it. It is said that, “wherever the Stone of Destiny lies, is where the King of Scotland shall rule.” Unfortunately King Edward of England didn’t like this idea and stole the stone for himself and used it as the cornerstone of an area of Westminster Abbey where all of the kings of England from that time would be coronated. So the Stone of Destiny remained in England until a student in Edinburgh thought it would be a good idea to steal the stone back, which was a good plan until he and his three friends realized how heavy it was… long story short, these university students do eventually prevail, only to have to hand it back over to the English. It wasn’t until it was returned in the late 20th century in a political move that Scotland actually got the Stone of Destiny back for good. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed to be taken… so I don’t even really have proof that I saw them….but I did!

After what seemed like a LONG day of walking around we decided to get a bite at The Elephant House. This was a location of my choosing, because from our tour the day before I read in the window that The Elephant House is where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books, or at least most of them!

I was so stoked to go to a place that J.K. Rowling actually sat and ate and created one of my favorite fantasy book series. The food was actually very good and the atmosphere was really great, but what I liked the most about the place was the bathroom…

That with the many many writings on the wall made it pretty much the coolest toilet I have encountered in my travels.

After a long day of walking you would think we would call it a night… but no. What comes next is what I like to call the 24 hours of insanity.

It begins with Emily and I deciding that we want to go out on the town during the evening. We originally wanted to go to the Pub Crawl (5 pubs, 2 of which were underground, and then a dance/club to finish off the night) but after we had recovered form the long day of walking we discovered that it started earlier than we thought, and we had literally half an hour to get ready and walk to the starting point (not going to happen). Plan B was to just go to some pubs/hangouts that were outlined in one of our travel maps provided by the hostel. First attempt was a pub called The Tron, but they required a passport for ID, which we didn’t bring with us. Second attempt was to find a place that was supposedly right next to The Tron, but we never found it. The Third and final attempt was at a place called Frankensteins. Finally, third time is a charm and we end up staying at Frankensteins for the evening! The entire bar/dance floor was dedicated to the Frankenstein theme. 

When we first arrived at Frankensteins it was kinda slow and mostly being run by the opposing Stag (Bachelor) and Hen (Bachelorette) parties. Also, of the people who weren’t part of those parties about half had to have been later 30s or older. Just kinda creepy…

Around 11:30pm we were going to call it a partially successful night when we ran into a Scotland native named Simon and his two buddies who had come down to Edinburgh form their home town in Aberdeen.

They were very nice, fun to dance and talk with, and kept the creepers away (and a few free drinks never hurt anyone…). Around 1:15am Emily and I had to bid Simon and his friends adieu since we had to get up super early the next morning for a tour we had planned. Which essentially ended up meaning that we finally went to sleep at 2:30am and were up again at 6:30am for an 8:00am tour start time.

Day 4, Saturday 26 Feb 2011: The big tour and the ghost tour. Yay 12 hour bus tour of the Scottish Highlands!

Woke up… ish and then we were off up the windy road into the Highlands. Nothing I can seriously report about the drive up except that all of the scenery was gorgeous!! We stopped a few times to get out and take some pictures, but it was pretty much non-stop until we got to Port Agustus.

Port Agustus is the town that sits next to Lock Ness!! I am sorry to say that I didn’t see her while I was out there! We missed the actual boat tour because our tour guide/bus driver said that we just missed a tour. I was really bummed about this. The town of Port Agustus was still a lot of fun to walk through, that have this canal that has steps (like Panama) so that boats can get through to Loch Ness and back out.

We had lunch in town and then we were off again on the open road. The next big stop for us was the Commando Memorial. This was a memorial that was erected by William Churchill to commemorate the WWII infantry men who died during training out in the Highlands of Scotland. 

There was another WWII memorial area with the names of fallen soldiers and artifacts that were laid there by family and friends.

Also around the memorial was a huge mountain range that contains the highest mountain in Scotland, Ben Nevis.

After our SUPER long tour of the Highlands, we capped off our 24 hours of insanity by doing a ghost tour on Edinburgh just a short hour and a half after we returned. All just pretty much laid on our beds and either slept or just relaxed until it was time to go. Simon, David, and Rory joined us on the ghost tour, so that made it more interesting to be sure.

We started out at a small church in the middle of the Royal Mile where an esteemed member of the church is said to have confessed to being a Warlock and being sexually involved with his sister. Quite the start to the evening. Our next stop of the tour took us to North Bridge where we learned about how it seemed like fate didn’t want the bridge to be built. There were design flaws that prevented it from being completed on time, when the water underneath was drained they found a TON of dead bodies, the oldest woman in the city was supposed to be the first to walk across it, but died 20 min before the ceremony. Get this, they still used her, she was processed across in a coffin by other people carrying her. After that we ended up at the Old Cemetery. Here we looked at a tombstone of a sinful man, on the back we could see what looks like a face screaming. Supposedly, it was his soul trapped between this life and the next.

Across from this tombstone was a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The Scots, who were oppressed during one of the worse times in Scotland, really looked to Abe Lincoln and his ideas. Thus, there is a statue of him… in their cemetery. Second country that I have visited to have an Abe Lincoln statue in it. [London was #1]

From the cemetery we walked up Calton Hill and learned about the “Fairies of Calton Hill.” They were supposedly not dainty little things, rather they were very demon like and there was one that looked like an old man until he chased you, and if he caught you he would fly down your throat and rip you apart from the inside out. Thankfully there were none on this tour!

At the top of Calton Hill there is a portion of what looks like the Parthenon. Apparently, Edinburgh was thought to be the next Athens of the world since it was so prosperous at the time it was named. But about 5 million pounds into building it, the government ran out of money and it was never finished. Thus at the top of the hill stands only a portion of what was supposed to be a replica of the Parthenon.

There is also a church looking building at the top of the hill, but the stone on it is so dark that my flash/camera didn’t pick it up very well… and apparently it won’t upload so it makes it that much more creepy.

As the group moved on down the hill I proceeded to say behind and take a picture of the amazing view of Edinburgh from the top.

This was a good idea, until I realized that the group was very far from me when I was done, and I was all by myself on a dark hill at about 10:30 at night in a foreign country, near a cemetery, on a ghost tour. Not my brightest moment. As I was half running/half walking down a dark hill I begin to hear footsteps echoing off to my left. As I slow my pace to see if it it my own cadence making the sound, it wasn’t. A few seconds later a man pops out of what I can only assume is a ditch off the side of the road I was walking on. Trying to keep going, but not wanting to seem like he startled me I ask if he was part of my tour. He replies, “No.” I figure, alright, well that is fine, no worries there. I then ask him if he was out and about for any particular reason. To which he replies, “Just trying to find a shortcut.” Odd, not sure how walking around the backside of a hill where it is pitch dark is really any kind of short cut. After that I continue on walking, quite speedily I might add, away from him towards what I can now see is a well lit, populated street. Unfortunately, it is still a bit of a walk. I can her him behind me, not very far at all and it makes me feel uncomfortable to the point where as soon as I see more people I bolt running down the hill towards them. In the process I drop my phone, my only light source, and I scramble to get all of the pieces before the guy catches up to me. Finally, down the hill I see my group across the street and Cristina and Rory looking exasperated. I was so relieved to see them.

After that experience I wasn’t going to wander far from the group anymore. We walked down was was called Jacob’s Ladder, supposedly the most horrible set of staircases where the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots haunts and pushes people down.

After Jacob’s Ladder the tour was pretty much over! We finished off the 24 hours of insanity at The Bank Hotel for our free pint of beer and some conversation with the guys. Though it was over we still had to entertain the guys for a few hours, finishing off with watching Sherlock Holmes in the cinema of the hostel. Off to bed… eventually.

Day 5, Sunday 26 Feb 2011: The Last Day in Edinburgh! In reality this day seemed to come so fast, but I am sure to you, the reader, this day seemed like it would never come. Our last day in Edinburgh was spent doing a repeat of a lot of the things we enjoyed previously and a tour of one monument.

We started off the morning having lunch at Eteaket, tea and scones again! They were so good, I wish we could have had them for breakfast everyday! That place was just amazing! We all ended up buying a tea that we liked out of the two times we had been there. I bought Bollywood Dreams Chai.

From tea we went to the Scott Monument, last place on our list to go see before we leave. 280 spiral steps to the very top.

Inside the second level was the only true historical meaning to it. It highlighted Sir Walter Scott’s work as a writer and showed some interesting facts about his life. Other than that, the monument seemed to just be a great choice to get different views of the city!

After the Scott Monument we decided that the weather was too nice to go to waste. In true California fashion we simply de-layered and layed out on a bench!

Finally filled with our missing Vitamin D from the past month and a half we went to the only place that sounded good to us… The Baked Potato Shop! We bought our potatoes and ate them on a bench in front of St. Giles Cathedral and just took advantage of all of the time we had before our flight. After “dinner” we went souvenir shopping for the last few hours before our flight. 

Once at the airport we found out our flight was delayed and we decided to look around for some dinner. We found none other than PHO!!!!

Oh how I have missed Pho. It still wasn’t the same because I didn’t have an Avocado Smoothie or the sweet brown sauce I use… but it will have to do!

That… was my trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, and I will never forget it. Even today I wish I could go back for another week and just hang out and tour other places.

Until the next super late update on my doings in Wales. Cheers!

Hey everyone! So before I get into all of the crazy details from my trip to Scotland… here are some realizations I came across while out there. 1) No one likes the English… Hated by all countries surrounding it - France, hates them, Wales, hates them, Ireland, hates them, and Scotland, hates them. 2) Scotland had a good idea when they would name streets for what was near or around it. Examples - Old Town = the older part of Edinburgh, New Town = the newer part of Edinburgh, The Royal Mile = 1 Scottish Mile distance (1 mile + 107 yds) between Hollyrood House (Mary Queen of Scots house) and Edinburgh Castle (house of the Crown Jewels), Grassmarket St. = street where they sold grass… like plants and stuff… not the other grass 3) The History of Harry Potter (books) is NOT in England, but in Edinburgh! 4) No one in Scotland appreciates Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. No One. Just some things to ponder before I overload your brain with my trip details!

Day 1, Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011: Off to Edinburgh we go! Classes for Wednesday and Friday are canceled and that means a 5 day weekend and THAT means TRAVEL! We left Cardiff at 1:30pm and were in Edinburgh at 3:00pm.

We checked into our hostel for the next few days, Caledonian Backpackers, and what an amazing place it was. It was perfect for any college age person traveling around the UK. The room arrangements were pretty nice, Emily, Cristina, and I were in a 12 bed female dorm. The twelve beds were simply 6 bunk beds with a pillow, comforter, and bottom sheet over the mattress. Each of us were also supplied a locker near our respective bed to store our stuff while we were out and about during the day or evening. On top of this our hostel had: a 24 hour bar stocked with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks, two pool tables, a Wii gaming system, a computer room which was also hooked up to a printer, a rent-a-laptop station (26 laptops to rent for however long you please), fully functioning kitchen, and a “movie theatre” where the people staying could choose movies from a fully stocked que 24-7. Pretty much we were being spoiled rotten in a hostel.

Since we didn’t want to be cooped up inside just yet, we left the hostel to explore Edinburgh, Scotland with a map provided at the front desk. The first goal of the trip - find The Baked Potato Shop and enjoy, what I was told, the best baked potato I will ever have. I thank you Derrick Diego for letting me in on this bit of information, because it was SO GOOD!!!

I had a small baked potato with chili and cheese and a Vegetarian Haggis Samosa on the side. After eating we went in and out of random shops looking at souvenirs and making our way back to the hostel. Once back we set a general game plan for the next few days and then went and watched Superbad in the movie theatre in the hostel! 

Day 2, Thursday 24 Feb 2011: Big tourist plans for the day. First on the list was the Walking Tour of Edinburgh. There is a company that operates in a couple major cities in Europe and the UK that are focusing on decreasing their carbon footprint and also being FREE (payment by donation only) for broke college tourists.

The walking tour was of Old Town Edinburgh. We started at a building where a lot of political happenings went on, but it was more just a place out of the way to talk about William Wallace and how the Braveheart movie is not accepted very kindly by the Scottish people. The main flaw was that William Wallace was a man who was pushing about 7ft in height, Mel Gibson, just pushing 5’5”. Not quite the man you would want to represent the person who lead the Scots to victory over the English in regaining Edinburgh Castle. Next was Merkat Cross, which is still used today for one of it’s 2 uses from the past. The first use is to make important declarations to the people of Edinburgh after news of said events finally reached the city from London; about 3 days. So to uphold tradition a man will walk out, up to the top of the cross and announce the wedding of William and Kate…. 3 days after it has happened.

The second use, which I volunteered myself to be a demonstration for, was for punishment purposes. Apparently, Merkat Cross was also where those who committed smaller, petty crimes were to be nailed… by their upper ear. For those of you who know, approximately right where my ear piercing is . They person who committed the crime was to be nailed there for 24 hours, in public, for the whole town to see and humiliate. Everything from rotten tomatoes to chamber pot contents were hurled at this person, as well as little children kicking at his/her shins. You didn’t have to stay and be subjected to such humiliation if you simply ripped your ear from the nail… but the chunk missing from your ear was a symbol to society that you couldn’t handle the punishment for your crime committed and were thus shunned from society to either spend the rest of your days in a different country or as a “lady of leisure.” BUT, if you did choose to complete the 24 hours of punishment the nail would be removed and you would be accepted back into society and thought of as a changed man/woman, never to do such a crime again.

From Merkat Cross we walked up the Royal Mile to St. Giles Cathedral and learned about the not so separate church and state. Also, next to the church there is a heart made out of bricks and cobblestone that represents the same design that was on the door of what used to be the prison. Tradition of Scottish people is when you walk by this heart you spit on it, in accordance with what their ancestors did when it was on the door of the prison.

Our tour guide told us a funny story about the heart as well. She said one day, while her and a few buddies were taking a break sitting on some benches near by, they saw a man propose to a woman right in the middle of the heart. It does seem romantic, until they learned of what the heart actually meant and how he pretty much just kneeled in hundreds of years worth of spit. Needless to say, the couple was from California…. fail.

After the hear we saw the oldest standing tenet residence in the city, learned more about William Wallace, then proceeded to Grassmarket St. On Grassmarket St. we learned that the nice street we stood on at that very moment used to be the “bad part” of Edinburgh. Lots of black market scams hatched and planned up and down that street. We also learned about how the University was short on bodies back in the day so there was a black market for dead bodies going on. Where people would rob graves, or if you were daring enough, kill people who weren’t going to be missed by society. Two men did this for about 6 months, suffocating random people, making a huge profit until they killed a well known “Lady of Leisure” and some of the students could vouch that she was not killed by “natural causes.” The men were tried, one got off on a deal, the other was hanged.

After Grassmarket it was on to Greyfriars Kirk, a cemetery with a lot of history of it’s own. Here we saw plots encased in steel cages to prevent the grave from being robbed, a mausoleum that was haunted by a mans ghost, and the first concentration camp in the history of man. Before the Germans there was an area of the Kirk called the Covenants Prison, where 200 people were left, chained in this area for 5 months. There they experienced all of the elements of Scotland (wind, rain, snow, low temperatures). Needless to say only 38 survived.

Greyfriars Kirk is also known for the story of Grefriars Bobby, a dog who sat and guarded his masters grave for 14 years after his master passed away. There is a headstone at the very opening of the Kirk and a statue erected just outside. For a while the statue outside had Bobby’s head pointed in the direction of his master’s grave. But somewhere between when it was erected and today someone turned it so it was facing the total opposite direction… theories are based on the fact that the pub behind it would get free publicity if people had to take pictures of it facing the other way. I refused to allow that…. so here is the angle I chose…

From Grefriars we went to the Museum of Scottish Writers, learned about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was based on an icon who by day was a good man, made keys, and fought for what was good, but by night would rob peoples homes (the same ones he made keys for). From there it was a quick walk down to the park, which was a lake where all the people would dispose of chamber pot contents. Needless to say the grass is ALWAYS green, 24-7, 365.

The tour ended at the park and we joined our tour guide at The Vat and The Fiddle Pub where I tried Haggis, the classic dish of Scotland. Now for those of you who want to try Haggis, you might not want to read the description I am about to give of it. Haggis is simply the leftovers of a sheep - lungs, heart, intestines, hoofs, etc. - cooked in the stomach and made into a type of meatloaf, covered in gravy and served with Neeps (mashed turnips) and Tatties (mashed potatoes). It tasted pretty good, just like regular meatloaf with a bit more pepper.

After the tour we did a bit of walking around Queen’s Street where all of the shopping was. I found a store called Jack Willis, I wish I had enough money to wear all of their clothes… I loved almost everything they had in stock! Darn exchange rate… While shopping we found an actual tea house, Eteaket, and we stopped inside for a spot of tea! I had a pot of Bollywood Dreams Chai with a scone.

I felt so girly and proper. After a long day of walking around we crashed for a bit at the hostel and then went to dinner at a restaurant/pub right across the street of the hotel, Ryans. I ordered the Croaque Madame, they had Croaque Monsieur like from It’s Complicated, but I wanted to try the Madame. Just what I was craving, toast with bacon, egg and cheese. Mmmmm….

After a relaxing dinner it was back to the hostel for a rousing game of Scrabble (Cristina and I tied), then off to bed.

So I have decided that I will post days 3-5 tomorrow… I am feeling exceptionally tired and I know I have WAY more to say about my trip, so it might be better that I break it up for you sanity! So I shall end this one with…..

TO BE CONTINUED…….

This post is a tad late… but it needed to be posted before anything from my current trip can be posted!

Not much happened throughout the week up until Sunday… Trip to London!!

We were picked up by a charter bus at campus at 7:35am and took a three hour bus ride into the heart of London. It was a fairly short bus trip considering almost everyone was sleeping, save a group of people sitting in the back with iPod speakers. I am so glad I was so tired I slept through it. We had a pit stop in Redding but after” that we were stuck on the bus for about 5 hours.

An hour before we entered London we were given - a map of London, a map of The Underground, a packet of things to see, a “what to do if you get left behind” paper, and a quiz on London. Out of 12 questions I got 7 right, not too bad! :D I learned a bit from the quiz; there are 32 pods on the London Eye, a beefeater is a guard of the Tower of London, and the best one is that Big Ben is NOT the clock tower adjoined to the Palace of Westminster, rather it is the massive bell inside the clock tower. The tower itself is called St. Steven’s Tower (I believe).

Finally in London we then embarked on a two hour bus tour of London. We drove past the National History Museum, Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, over the Blackfriars Brige to Waterloo and back (awesome views of the London Eye, Big Ben, and Houses of Parliament), then we were dropped of at St. James Palace. From the drop off point we immediately went to Buckingham Palace to take pictures in front of the Queen’s Residence. From there we walked through St. James Park to Big Ben! I found a statue of Abraham Lincoln across the street and on the other side of a park from Big Ben! It was so cool! After taking many funny classic “London Telephone Booth” photos, we took a wide shot of Big Ben and the Palace of Wesminster and headed up Whitehall Road; past 10 Downing Place where the Prime Minister lives and also passing many other important government buildings as well. We encountered the guards in the red jackets and the black hats ON HORSES! Took a few pictures and even watched a changing of the guard as we were leaving. From Whitehall Road we went to Trafalgar Square and then headed up Charing Cross Road for the ultimate goal of the trip — Chipotle! We did research and we found out that the ONLY one in the UK was in London. The search was a success and my lunch consisted of a Chicken Chipotle Burrito and some chips, delicious and absolutely satisfying!

After Chipotle we didn’t have anything else we NEEDED to do because we already figured out that we just need to spend a weekend in London to really see everything in depth, which meant shopping in Oxford Circus. There were a ton of cool shops like Vero Moda and Bik Bok, but the coolest store hands down was Anthropoligie’s Living Wall. The name pretty much says it all, the store is three stories down and on the bottom two floors there is a wall that is just growing plants out of it, lots of different green plants for two whole stories!!! My lungs truly appreciated it.

A few hours of wandering around the Oxford Circus ended up feeling like one and finally we were back waiting for the bus. We waited, and waited, and waited. While we waited we did what always seems to happen when we have too much time on our hands, we took pictures! The bus, it turns out was stuck behind a traffic accident and ended up being a hour and a half late to the pick-up spot so we were able to get a few good ones in there. Like our picture of all of us doing our best “Singing in the Rain” impression. When the bus finally arrived at 6:30 we hopped on as quickly as possible and got comfortable for a, now due to traffic, four hour bus ride home. Yes, finally as 10:30pm rolled around Emily, Cristina and I walked off the bus weary and starving for a real meal.

But what an adventure, to be in London for a day. As I mentioned before, we are definitely going back and really taking the time to see what London has to offer!

New posts to be happening soon as I have been in Edinburgh, Scotland since the midday Wednesday (Feb 23rd)! The hostel is amazing here and has laptops to rent out among other amazing ammenities!

Cheers!

Jessica

Hiya, here is a recap of my pretty exciting week!

Monday: Valentine’s Day with Emily and Cristina. After classes and such we tried to have an enjoyable Valentine’s Day in Wales. Emily made truffles from scratch and covered them with walnuts and cocoa powder. SO DELICIOUS!!! We ate the truffles while watching “A Walk to Remember” and “Charlie St. Cloud.” It was a long, slightly tearful event, but all in all a Valentine’s Day to remember.

Tuesday: All but one of my lectures were canceled for today, and of course the only one that wasn’t was the one at 9am. Physiology lab was pretty fun, I had to do my repeated sprint test as part two of the experiment we are running for our class. We had to cycle against 7.5% of our body weight for 10 bouts, 6 seconds per bout, with a 30 second rest in between. It was not too bad, but I think I could have done better. Which is good I guess since my heart rate wasn’t recorded like it was supposed to be, so I have to redo the sprint test on Monday….yay…..

Later in the day we volunteered ourselves to be tested on. Amanda, our TA in Exercise Physiology, is doing her dissertation on how the left side of the heart works during different work intensities. She needed to practice finding certain parts of the heart using an ultrasound on as many different people as possible before he study starts; so I was one of many guinea pigs for the day. It was SO COOL to see my heart on the screen, if I was hooked up to an ECG they said I would be able to see the actual readout of what my heart was doing on the same screen. During the session the guy who is overseeing the project came in and told me “I have a really nice heart.” Good to know that being athletic my whole life has lead to my having a nice heart on an ultrasound. Also, by volunteering myself to be practiced on, I somehow also volunteered myself for her actual dissertation project. I am now part of a study where I have to do ANOTHER VO2max test, plus 4 other tests after that one on this cycling ergometer that is sideways so that they can constantly be monitoring my heart with an ultrasound. I may try to get some pictures to show what I mean.

At tea (dinner) Emily and I had the funniest conversation with the girls from the flat. We somehow got on the subject of movies and I would just like to say that I never knew how much movies reflected what people thought of America until this night. First, they still think that High School is very closely related to what they see in Mean Girls. Second, in terms of scary movies I was asked if we had hillbillies in America, I said yeah, not too many, but they exist. So then I was asked, “Do hillbillies eat people??” I am sorry, but what?????? Emily and I were quick to say, no to that one. It was just so funny though. But pretty much thanks to Hollywood, hillbillies eat people, Texas is just a state to avoid all together, and I don’t even want to think about what else Hollywood is influencing on people out here. So funny.

Wednesday: Battle of the Unis at Oceana.

In true girl fashion we took a perfectly good t-shirt and cut it up to wear out for the event.

They were pre-printed t-shirts with the same design just different colors - UWIC was green, Cardiff was pink, and Glamorgan was yellow.

Such a fun night out! Almost the entire flat went out together, we primarily stayed in the Disco room. But when we were buying drinks at the bar downstairs I saw that they there were three beerpong tables set up, it made me miss LB a bit. Plus, I was surprised that they even had them at all! In the Disco Room they just played a ton of 90’s songs, just an awesome atmosphere with all my friends from UWIC!

Thursday: Recovery Day

No class = sleeping in till 1pm and doing nothing all day! :D

SO excited to Sunday!!!!

Cheers,

Jessica